Why hold an election during the holidays? It’s the only way to fill those seats before the legislative session begins on January 13, 2015. (Here’s a list of important dates for the 2015 session.)

Besides the time of year, there are other reasons for the low voter turnout. Recently, at a girls’ night out, some of my friends said that they feel disengaged from elections. They feel like character is more important than political party affiliation, but it’s hard to get reliable information. They don’t want to get brainwashed by the one-sided presentations on 24-hour news channels.

Keep it local. District 8 city council member Ron Nirenberg teaches kids about civics by asking them to think of a real-life problem, such as potholes on their street, and then figure out who they could ask to fix the problem; read more in this earlier post. In local elections, sometimes the outcome depends on a few hundred votes. If you can round up a few neighbors, and they can get their friends fired up, then you just might be able to change the outcome.

Show up. Go to a neighborhood association meeting. Visit a school board meeting. Go to an open house for an elected official. For example, Mayor Ivy Taylor is visiting branch libraries for Meet The Mayor events: February 12 at Forest Hills, February 25 at Landa, February 26 at Bazan, and more—visit the calendar and search for “Taylor.”

Keep reading and learning. Follow your elected officials on social media, and sign up for their email newsletters. Talk to your friends, but—most importantly—listen. If enough of us do that, then there is hope for us all.

If you want to do more research about tomorrow’s election, here are some news sources: